The overall goal of the Research Career Development Core (RCDC) will be to identify and train a cadre of clinical investigators who will be future leaders in aging research, with the skills necessary to design and conduct epidemiologic and intervention studies of multifactorial geriatric health conditions. The specific aims are: (1) to promote research career development of junior faculty through provision of salary, infrastructure/ technical, and other support through 3 levels of career development: (a) Early Career Development Awards to promising junior faculty within the first 2 years of faculty appointment; (b) Transitional Career Development Awards to faculty in years 3-6 of their faculty appointment during the transition from junior to independent investigator; (c) OAIC Affiliated Junior Faculty who will be offered access to the OAIC training and Core resources; (2) to provide and facilitate priority access by junior faculty to the resource Cores' expertise and services for study design, conduct, and analysis; (3) to sponsor a yearly junior faculty retreat to provide intensive training and support in research career development; (4) to provide and facilitate access to educational activities in aging research locally and nationally; (5) to enhance access to other career development resources, such as protocol development and staff training, geriatric instrument catalog, grant and questionnaire resource libraries, information on funding sources, assistance with identifying study populations, and assistance with identifying mentors and collaborators; and (6) to advance education and career development for OAIC staff across all Cores. Dr. Sharon Inouye, a NIHfunded clinical investigator with international stature for her work on delirium and proven leadership and mentorship abilities, will lead the RCDC. For the first year, 5 awardees of outstanding promise have been selected. Early Career Development Awards will go to: Dr. Margaret Pisani (Pulmonary/Critical Care); Dr. William Gallo (Psychosocial Epidemiology/Health Economics); and Dr. Joel Dubin (Biostatistics). Transitional Career Development Awards will go to: Dr. Cary Gross (General Internal Medicine); and Dr. Sidney Bogardus (Geriatrics). Consistent with the goals of the Older Americans Independence Centers (OAIC), the ultimate goal of the RCDC is to train future interdisciplinary clinical investigators in the skills necessary to develop better interventions to maintain health and independence for older persons.